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HON. S. S. COX 



ON 



AMHESTY FOR ALL. 



" Let all bitterness aud wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put 
away from you, with all malice ; and be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, 
forgiving one another. ****** Redeeming the time, because 
the days are evil."— St. Paul to the Ephesians. 



e^ 



Amnesty and tlie Jeforson Davis Amendment. 



SPEECH 



HOl^. SAMUEL S. COX. 



OP NEW YORK, 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



MONDAY, JANUARY 10, 187G. 



" Humor not the iujustice of revcnse."— Siu Thomas Broavxe. 

• The auodyne dranglit of oblivion thus dragged is well calculated to preserve 
a galling wakefulness, and to feed tlie living ulcer of a corroding memory. Thus 
to administer the opiate portion of a mnesty, powdered with all the ingredients of 
scorn and contempt, is to hold to the lips the cup of human misery fall tu the brim, 
and to force it to the dregs."— Ed:iuxd Bukke. 



I 
■\^ 

WASHINGTON: 

GOVE li X :\I E X T P R I X T i X G OFFICE. 
1 8 7 G . 

UK 



^ 



SPEECH 



OF 

HON. SAMUEL S. COX, 



The House ha^^ng niider consideration the bill (H.R. K^o. 914) to remove the dia- 
aliiiities imposed by the third section of the fourteenth article of the amendments 
of the Constitution of the United States, the j)ending question being on the motion 
of Mr. Blaine to reconsider the motion by which the bill was rejected — 

Mr. COX said : 

Mr. Speaker : The Lonorable gentleman from Maine, who under 
some dispensation of Providence or of the people is no longer our 
Speaker, has seen proper at the beginning of this centennial year to 
tear away the plasters of prndence over the green and bloody wounds 
of our ci\al contlict. He has seen proper to justify his conduct in 
the light of history. I venture to say that there is no precedent in 
history and no canon in political philosophy which the party in the 
minority on this floor have not outraged. 

The annals of American amnesty furnish a record of republican 
wrong. Our civil conflict came out of sectional animosity. Our 
mutual grievances might have been assuaged by the spirit of concilia- 
tion. That spirit was wanting, and the red storm was upon us. 
During those long and bloody years the radical party sought with 
tigerish appetite not for peace and union so much as for revenge and 
conquest. It, even sought by unconstitutional confiscation to despoil 
the innocent children of the South of their ii3heritance for the deeds 
of their sires. At that time I was compelled to appeal to a higher 
law for the vindication of constitutional humanity. In January, 1864, 
to answer the proscriptive nature of the radical argument, I said : 

Tn^ly, sir, we have fallen on evil times, when, to bolster up a bill of penalty lilce 
this, upon the children of the guilty, the beautiful and sacred relations of the 
family are to be disrupted. 1 am shocked, that in this age, and in this country, and 
in this House — and after England, following our example, has reformed her old and 
barbarous law forfeiting estates in fee — 1 am required to stand up before the 
American people, and, as a matter of pure jihilanthrophy and common decency, 
portest agamst the cruel and remorseless character of bills of this kind, and to 
defend the rights of those who have committed no crime, but upon whom it is pro- 
posed to visit, after the death of the parent, the crimes of the ancestor. I protest 
against such bills as contrary to the gentle and loving spirit of the Savior, who, 
while upon His trancendent mission to this attainted and corrupted world, shielded 
in His arms the little ones of Judea. His words have a tender and sweet signifi- 
cance which it would not be unbecoming us as Christian legislators to heed : " Inas- 
much as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto Mo." "Would 
that these words were graven upon our memories and hearts when we come to voto 
upon this harsh and vengeful measure against the little children of the South! 
Such words interpret the Coiistilutidn hj a liberal canon of kindness — more po- 
tent than ever Grotius. Yaitel, or istory conceived or expressed, or than ever 
modem xjhilanthropy practiced ! 

Instead of lenity, radicalism broke codes and established tyranny. 
Instead of building the Eomau bridge of gold for the returning recu- 
sant, it made the rickety bridge of reconstruction. 



Ten years after tlie teriiiiuation of the war it proposed tbe bad rule 
of force and the bravado of brigadiers to coerce States and upturn 
established iDstitutious. During the hnig period since the war it has 
often babbled of concord. It has made festive speeches about cen- 
tennial and fraternal feeling, only to return to the low instincts ol 
party advantage and discordant legislation. 

At last the people of all sections by an immense majority rose against 
these policies. They would no longer worship the Nemesis of repub- 
licanism; they had read the promise that "good tidings should bind 
uj) the broken-hearted, and to them that mourn there should be given 
beauty for ashes." They felt as they hoped, that the old wastes 
should be rebuilded and the former desolations be raised up; and 
they cast up a highway and lifted up a standard for the people! 
They have sent us here to restore and bless with a grace tiiat knows- 
no grudging, and with a general and generous law that makes no invid- 
ious exception, and which will leave no bitterness in its execution. 

How have wo been met by the other side ? By insectiverons at- 
tempts to foster fresh hate, about a few Union soldiers here, and that, 
too, without a foundation of truth or a spark of human generosity 
toward their sixty peers from the South, who sit courteously and 
quietly in our midst, intent on the same sentiment of patriotic devo- 
tion. 

When, therefore, the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Raxdall] 
proposes again the bill which was passed by this branch in the last 
Congress and defeated by the Senate, we may well understand how it 
is met by the same spirit of reluctance. Priding itself on some 
suiierior virtue and patriotism, it cannot allow the mercy of amnesty 
to go through without party spite. It forgives, but hopes in some 
way still to punish by fixing a Ijrand on the leader of the revolt. It 
forgets the grand spirit of Sir Thomas Browne. That spirit teaches 
that partial forgiveness was not oblivion ; that the curtain of night 
should be shut upon injmies ; that they should be as if they had not 
been, and that reserved forgiveness is not to forgive at all. 

Let this sentiment be set in gold for all nations, races, and ages : 

Let not the sun in Capricorn go down on our ■wrath. Let us wiit« our wrongs in, 
ashes ; draw the curtain of night upon injuries ; shut them up in the tower of 
oblivion, and let them be as though they had not been. To forgivf and yet hope 
that God will punish our enemies is not to forgive enough. To forgive and not 
pi ay God to forgive, is a partial piece of charity. Forgive thine enemies totally, 
and without any reserve. 

The wisest men have advised not to answer in wrath nor on the 
spm- of furj' ; not to be prodigal in revenges. The old adage of an 
eye for an eye is not the maxim of generous natures. It is the soft 
tongite, the heaping of coals of fire on the enemy's head, and tho 
charm of conquest by kindness that makes retaliation grateful and 
leaves no hatred after it. The sagacious thinkers among men, who 
have redeemed iucivism and made order out of chaos, teach that our 
wrongs should not be written on marble, but in water. 

It is reserved for the gentleman to impress upon his party the in- 
glorious and unreasoning policies of hate. To him the " dead enemy 
smells well," and he finds musk and amber in revenge. His amend- 
ment, couched in the spirit of partial amnesty, is designed to re-iu- 
spiro wrath and capture the ear of his willing partisans. He would 
rake over the dead embers of hate to relight the fires of jjersecution 
and punishment. 

The gentleman has referred to the Duke of Alva. He is ro doubt 
familiar, and his party since the war, at least, have ))eeu familiar witk 
that history. Tlie history of the Netherlands under the Duke of Alva is. 



tlie history of the radicalism, spoUation, muvfler, death, and tyranny 
in the South since 1865. The gentleman says there isuo precedent in 
history for "eneral amnesty. There is a precedent two thousand years 
ago, and all history is filled with precedents to the point that nations 
should not make luonuments to vengeance ; that nations should not 
build monuments except to foreign conquest— never monuments to 
domestic calamity. This was the advice of Tiberius to the Roman 
senate when that'body begged Tiberius to erect a monument to venge- 
ance,to commemorate the death of one who fell in civil strife. It has 
been reserved to the gentleman from Maine to tiy in the face of all his- 
tory, pagan history, Hebraic history, Christian history, and Christian 
doctrine. Now, in this year of grace and jubilee, he issues his anathe- 
ma marau-atha agaiust'^the South. What is his peculiar purpose? 

It is not for one member to challenge the motives of another on 
this floor. Whatever may be the intention of the gentleman, whether 
led like Macbeth by the dangerous vision of the crown or the hope 
of reviving the life and vigor of his party ; whether this, like other 
political devices, is meant to divert the public scrutiny from malad- 
ministration and whelm in sectional emotion the better feelings of 
our people, which has sent this majority here ; whether he fears 
that the approaching era of national revolutionary memories may run 
counter to the naiTow ostracism of his limited politics, it is sure that 
the gentleman has himself not only i-oceived new light upon this sub- 
ject, but that this light leads astray, and is not the light of heaven. 
I take issue with the honorable gentleman from Maine when he 
says that his party is clement and amnestical. It is not true. It was 
not true during the war. It has not been true since. It is not true 
to-day. And whenever his party has tried to seem clement, it has 
been sure to spoil the clemency by a small, partisan policy. 

The history of amnesty is not long ; nor is it a fresh theme of mine. 
My first pleading'for it was during the war. Out of its spirit sprang 
the joint resolution which I offered and which was passed for the ex- 
change of prisoners. It was a partial truce, to soften the horrors of 
war. 

How did the party of the gentleman even then act upon this pecu- 
liar question ? Is the administration record all right as to the ex- 
change of prisonei-s during the war ? I say on the authority of sixty 
and odd gentlemen here, inany of them having been in the service of 
the confederacy during the war, that no order was issued at any time 
in the South relative to prisoners who were taken by the South as to 
rations or clothing that did not apply equally to their own soldiers ; and 
any ex parte statements taken by that humbug committee from which 
the gentleman has quoted, all that can be raked and scraped together 
in the shape of these miserable ex jmrte affidavits, cannot controvert 
the facts of history which will be determined on a fair issue made. 
So far as the southern government was concerned, whatever may 
have been the bad conduct of certain persons under them, their orders 
at least were couched in the spirit of fairness and humanity. 

But the gentleman from Maine goes further. He defends the 
action of the republican party during and since the war because it 
was so magnanimous, so grand. Why, it allowed you gentlemen of 
the South to come back here to the American Congress ! God bless us 
all ! [Laughter.] The republican party, by the grace of the gentle- 
man from Maine and others, elected you men of the South by removing 
your disabilities. Down on your knees, gentlemen of the South, before 
ills majesty of Maine ! [Laughter.] _ 

In the spirit of generosity, and with a view to the restoration of 



G 

peace aud imioii, I have pleaded here for the laws of natural justice ; 
I pleaded for it ou sea, to stop predatory and barbarous practices, to 
enable combatants to make peace, unimbittered by cruelties to help- 
less women and children, to non-combatants, and to men of produc- 
tive industry aud peaceful occupations in i)rivate life ; in fine, to make 
laws for war, and to make them respected and not silent amid the 
very clangor of conflict. I protested against illegal seizures of prop- 
erty aud person, and against punishing and desolating the regions 
invaded. The very number of the delinquents who fail in patriot- 
ism has been held by Vattel and other publicists as the incentive 
to clemency. Where there are two distinct societies or bodies, aud 
where rebellion rises into civil war, and the insurgency is suppressed, 
the duty toward the conquered is that of the conquering nation 
toward its equal in national independence and autonomy. For a 
strouger reason, those who are engaged in lacerating their common 
country, the laws of war and the maxims of moderatiou and humanity 
obtain. Is it fair to pillage the home of the widow and the herit- 
age of the orphan ? Is it just to fire the hospital and the library ? 
Is it human to hang prisoners or i^oison wells ? Then and in such 
cases, to suppress rebellion, you only intensify and re-invigorate, and 
you close the door to conciliation. 

Any movement looking to the consorting affections of the people, 
and which decks the sword with the olive, is of the highest states- 
manship. Is it not patriotism also ? Does it not bring forth the idea 
or sentiment of oneness in a nation ? Does it not blaze out a path in 
the wilderness of battle to the roof -tree of home ? When, therefore,, 
it was sought, in the fell spirit of this amendment, to inspire more 
hate, by the confiscation of the estates of the iimoceut, was I not 
right in interpreting our Coustitution by the canons of kindness ? 
And by a parity of reasoning, when it is sought again and now to 
perpetuate hate by the continued proscription of the chief of the in- 
surgency, may I not again appeal to the spirit of Him who, when He 
spake to little children and bade them come to Him, also stood upon 
the nameless mountain and gave us thb great lessons of forgiveness 
to one another, even to the love of our enemies and persecutors. 

When the war was drawing to its close, and States were rescued 
and reconstruction with the military was proposed by one-tenth of 
the population of such States by legislation here, it became my duty 
again to warn against that mistake so often fatal to governments, 
which confounds the pervading taint of disaffection with mere local 
isolation. At that time President Lincoln had begun to show that 
magnanimity which aided our conquering armies. He proposed am- 
nesty. It was the first adventure beyond the line of force into the 
field of conciliation. 

■\Mien the amnesty of Mr. Lincoln was proposed — proposed in a 
spirit O, how different from that exhibited by the gentleman from 
Maine! — he said that he was actuated by malice toward none and 
charity toward all, Jefferson Davis included. There was no exception, 
no restriction, no odious test-oaths, which are the odium of history and 
the derision of all governments — such oaths as we have had — the iron- 
clad and others. Why, sir, the gentleman from Maine could not have 
been raised in a Christian church, or in any church which teaches the 
gospel of Him that "spake as never man spake." I cannot tell — the 
nation does not know, in what church he was raised, [laughter;] but 
one thing I do know, that if he had read the spirit of the Sermon ou 
the Mount aright, ho never would have made the vindictive speech 
which came from him to-day. " Forgive your enemies. Bless those 
who persecute you." [Ironical laughter on the republican side.] 



The bugles of President Liucolu sounded a truce, though ever so 
remotely and faintly, but its echoes were as undying as his motto for 
charity and against malice. He had endeavored to reform the Union, 
but his fatal error was that his republicanism was based upon the 
small apex of his political pyramid. It was held that the States were 
destroyed; only a tabula rasa remained to write the fufciire codes of 
the many by the sword. The equal dignity of the States was de- 
stroyed, and no persuasive measures followed on which to construct 
anew. The cry was that the " penitentiary of hell" was the prison for 
the recusants. What followed we know. Cessation of hostilities 
after the surrender to Sherman on honorable terms ; the old ties re- 
newed; a common feeling of fellowship in the Union on the part of 
the South. What on the part of the North f Moral treason and social 
anarchy; political proscription and adventurous rapacity; a licen- 
tious, uucivic soldiery, and revengeful appetite for pillage? The 
enchantments of the old associations, almost renewed, were torn to 
pieces. Poison, not oil, was poured into the unhealed wounds of war. 
It was the Saturnian revel, in which the father devoured his own 
offspring. Contentment fled before ignorance and spoliation. An- 
archy, secret societies, undisciplined ravage, and reprisals of fraud 
were followed by rancor and unrest. The friends of the radicals 
talked extermination, and the better angels of our nature fled aghast 
from the spectacle. 

When a great scholar wrote to the conquering Charlemagne how to 
treat the subjugated Huns, what was his advice ? First. Send gentle- 
mannered men among them. Second. Do not require the tithe. Better 
lose the tithe than prejudice the people. "Mortal! Treat mortals 
with kindness. One sacred streams flows for us all." But when the 
Congress sent its decrees South and the emissaries of discord to execute 
them, it was a question which was the worst curse, the agents of the 
Government or the fraudulent taxes ! No forgiveness to the enemy ; 
no hope to the desponding ; no protection to the oppressed : no meas- 
ures of moderation. We neither fortified our strength with liberality 
nor gave courage to despair. Discontent grew, and with it provoca- 
tions to revolt. But the South remained patient, forbearing, waiting, 
like the soul of the Psalmist, " more than they that watch for the 
morning." Did that morning dawn ! Ah ! how slowly to the weary 
watcher. 

Then came juggling pretenses of amnesty ; now and then, for 
treachery and party service, individual disabilities were removed; 
now and then some generous impulse would cross the popular mind, 
led by the better men of the Republican party, only to be suppressed 
by the iron hand of revenge. When Mr. Siunner proposed to erase 
the names of victories fi-om the battle-flags, Massachusetts di'ew 
black lines around his honored name. When Horace Greeley pro- 
posed to reconcile all by amnesty, and even proposed to bail Jefferson 
Davis and enlarge him from Fortress Monroe, he was hunted as the 
tiger hunts the lamb. When Chase, and Trumbull, and men of their 
large mold proposed honorable and responsible governments for the 
South and peace through all our borders the counter-cry went up, 
even from this Hall, for funerals, outlawries, and all other schemes 
of vulgar despotism. When States were smitten, as Georgia, Ala- 
bama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana; when usiu-patiou went 
hand in hand with the greedy minions of fraud and the supple tools 
of force, the cry grew louder for an unrelenting subjugation ! 

During this decade of wrong, outraging every lesson of history and 
every tenet of political i^hilosopliy, every code of humane law and 



every attribute of divine mercy, most of the leailing men of the 
stricken South remained disabled. If they received their ability, it 
was with niggard acquiescence, without an element of graciousness. 

I will proceed to give you the amnesty which was proposed. Per- 
haps there will not be so many thorns crackling under the pot, which 
is called the laughter of a certain class, [laughter,] and which I have 
just heard from the other side of the House. Many particular and 
liartial amnesties were engineered and carried through the House by 
these republican gentlemen. What for? In a spirit of gracious 
Christian kindness ? No. They were the rewards which you paid 
for partisan services and base treachery to recruit your failing ranks. 

Mr. BLAINE. How did the gentlemen on the other side of the 
House get here ? 

Mr. COX. I will tell you that directly. 

Mr. BLAINE. Did they betray their cause? 

Mr. COX. I will come to that dir*^ctly. They came here because 
the South wanted honest representatives, and your representatives 
from the South were not honest. [Ajiplause on the floor and in the 
galleries.] 

Mr. BLAINE. Will the gentleman tell us how they got amnesty ? 

Mr. COX. They got amnesty by force of a popular sentiment 
which enabled a few good men on your side to join the good men on 
this side and compel amnesty. I will show you whei'e that comes in 
directly. [Kenewed applause.] 

Scarcely a general schome for amnesty was entertained by the party 
in power until 18(39. Many particular cases were passed for special 
partisan reasons. But in 1869-'70 I oftered- a resolution for general 
and unexceptional amnasty. Every eifort was made to conceal the 
record on that subject. I'he gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Ran- 
dall] at last, to get an open vote, moved to lay it on the table, voting 
against his own motion. The motion was lost — yeas 84, nays 87. 
Some twenty republicans joined the democrats in" this liberal vote, 
and along with them many colored members, for on that (Viy the col- 
ored troops fought nobly. [Laughter.] This is a pretty coriimentary 
on the white side of that part of the House. [Laughter.] But the 
body of your iiarty at once referred it to the vsepulcher called a com- 
mittee on reconstruction, with only 56 negative votes, where it slept 
the sleej) that knows no waking. [Laughter.] 

Then an emergency arose, and at the last session of the Forty-first 
Congress, on December 15, 1870, General Butlers bill was introduced. 
A curious bill it was. I thi nk the gentleman fi-om Maine [ Mr. Blaine ] 
must have modeled his bill a little on that, for Butler's bill was mod- 
eled on a bill of the English Parliajnent agai)ist the Pretender's friends 
in Scotland. In that long bill of General Butler there was one con- 
spicuous exception, the Rob Roy McGregor. And the gentleman frwm 
Maine has picked out his Rob Roy McGregor so as to imitate the per- 
secuting spirit of England toward Scotland two hundred years ago. 

That bill was entitled ' ' A bill for full and general grace, amnesty, and 
oblivion of all wrongful acts, doings, and omissions of all persons 
engaged in the war of the late rebellion." It was the first step out- 
side of particular jiersonal amnesty. It was outside of partial re- 
jtrieval. That bill was a measure of proscription in the guise of 
clemency. Its mercy was as meager as its title was misnamed. It 
was almost a joke and a solecism. The exceptions gave memory 
to oblivion and punishment in pardon. It was Lethe, all alive 
and rushing like a western river in a freshet. [Laughter.] It was a 
plan of salvation l)asecl oa a scheme of damnation, it eternized hate. 



) 



It made healing impossible. What was its design ? It quieted notli- 
ing. It was a bill of pains, penalties, and litigation. But it had an 
iusidions object. It was an act of oblivion for the agents and officers 
of the United States engaged in reconstruction ! 

What a commentary ! This kind of mercy was not strained. It 
di'opped like the gentle dew of heaven upon the tools and parasites 
who had harassed and oppressed a conquered people. 

What had they been doing, your sweetly-scented agents of recon- 
struction, that you should have amnestied them ? Had they been 
stealing ? Had they been tyrannizing ? 'Had they been upturning 
Legislatures ? Had they been runuing riot among a'helpless and con- 
quered people ? The unconscionable scoundi'els, who were sxmk in the 
sloughs of a general degradation, were allowed vitally to bubble from 
their Lethe ! 

That is one chapter of your amnesty. I wonder the gentleman from 
Maine [Mr. Blaine] did not have that section inserted with his other 
exceptions in his amendment to this bill. That bill, however, was 
too bad to pass. Even this House could not stand it, and they sent 
it to a committee ; they j)08tponed it on a certain day, on the 11th 
of January, 1871. It came back, however, in March, 1871, on a mo- 
tion to reconsider, and it finally passed as amended on motion of 
Judge Poland, of Vermont. But then the amendment was full of ex- 
ceptions as to Army and naval officers and those who had voted for 
ordinances of secession. WTien that bill passed by 120 to 82, it went 
to the Senate, and there also it was choked to death like all the otbei-s. 

Then came the Forty-third Congress ; then came the lifting up of 
the voice of the people. Then you found that the people were de- 
manding that a highway should l>e cast up and a standard be lifted 
for them ! Then came the moral power of the i^eople. And, although 
we had kukluxes, and investigations, and all sorts of provocations, 
and troubles, and atrocities, and recriminations, and threats, yet one 
day, all at once, to the astonishment of my honored colleague who 
sits before me, on the Committee on Rules, [Mr. Randall,] and my- 
self, it was proposed in the presence of a full committee (and I know 
where they met) to introduce a general amnesty bill. 

This bill was unincumbered with litigations and punishments. It 
was couched in the language of liberality. It had the grace of all 
religions and the philosophy of all political eras. It was the ijroduct 
of goodness ! 

I do not think the House ever instructed the Committee on Rules 
on that subject. But no matter for that. There was something 
going on that I could not understand nor did my colleague, [Mr. Ran- 
dall. ] It was found out that your policy was arousing hate and losing 
you what little respect you had in the South. You proposed in that 
committee to bring in a bill of general amnesty. It was proposed 
that Mr. Maynard should draw up that bill without any exceptions. 
I do not say the gentleman from Maine [Mr. Bl^une] proposed it, 
but it was proposed, and he was present and made no objection to it. 
And if you appeal here to your God, I appeal to my colleague and to 
my God and to the Record. [Laughter.] 

Mr. BLAINE. I observe that the gentleman, following the exam- 
ple of Dogberry, puts his colleague first. [Laughter.] 

Mr. COX. I will give you enough of the dog before I get through. 
[Renewed laughter.] Then I would appeal not merely to Provi- 
dence, nor to my colleague, but I will appeal to the Record to show 
that a bill almost identical with the one now opposed by the honor- 



10 

able and distm*?uiifliea geutleman from Maine [Mr. Blaixe] then re- 
ceived his acquiescence. I read from the Eecord : 

Mr. Maitcard. I am instrocted by the Committee on Eules, acting upon a leso- 
lutioii submitted to them the other day- 
There was a resolution — 
To report the bill which I send to the desk. 

Now that shows that there was some solemn concord among our 
republican brethren to brifig this general amnesty about at that time 
for some i)urpose. 

This bill which I now send to the desk has met the unanimous approval of the 
Committee on Rules. 

Who constituted that committer at that time ? James G. Blaine, 
Speaker, and, ex officio, chairman of the Committee on Rules. James 
A. Garfield. He still stands out nobly, as I am told, for an unexcep- 
tional amnesty. I see it in his benignant smile. [Laughter.] Horace 
Maynard, Samuel J. Randall, and another, who perhaps is not so 
good as some of the others of the committee. 

How can I picture the scene of the new transfiguration ! I was 
rejoiced in my heart of hearts. It looked like the good old times 
again. I wanted something of that kind. My heart had been yearn- 
ino- for these men who had been erring, i wanted them back in the 
tr^k of the Government. "VNTien Mr. Maynard made the proposi- 
tion his swart features and tall figure shone as it were with a supernal 
light. The other geutleman [Mr. Garfield, of Ohio] seemed to have 
an aureole around his brow. [Laughter.] And as for the gentleman 
from Pennsylvania, my colleague, why he was illumined with a sort 
of centennial halo. [Great laughter.] As for the geutleman from 
Maine, I can recall how he looked on that occasion. Instinct with 
some patriotic light, he reminded me of the Apocalyptic angel, which 
shone so bright and beautiful it was impossible to look upon him. 
[Great laughter.] 

Alas! alas! I was afraid then that there was some parfy emer- 
gency, and that it would pass away as the bill passed 'to tbe Senate. 
Alas! alas ! that the grace with which my colleague [Mr. Eakdall] 
and myself yielded the direction and management of this democratic 
bill to'our republican colleagues should have been so little appre- 
ciated. Ah, then I knew that the honorable member from Mame had 
been perusing history. He had read of Claverhouse and his merry 
men of blood, and of Hoche and his conciliation of La Vendue. He had 
read of Ireland, Poland, and what not of woes to conquered people. 

That Maynard bill was reported to the House. What then ? Where 
was my friend, the Ex-Speaker, then ? In the chair? At home ? No; 
he sent down to a member to do something that he did not want to 
do himself. Why, I am surprised and mortified at the gentleman from 
Maine sending down to another member — a colored member, too, I 
believe it was — to do what he had not the courage to do himself ; 
and that was to have Jefi'ersou Davis excluded fi-om the operation of 
that bill. Is that the statement ? Is that correct ? 

Mr. BLAINE. As the gentleman puts the question to me, I desire 
to make a little explanatiou for just a moment. Will the gentleman 
allow me ? 

Mr. COX. Certainly. 

Mr. BLAINE. What the gentleman states is in the main correct. 
I can state it more fully. Mr. Maynard was especially anxious to 
report the amnesty bill. He had certain reasons which I do not fully 
know, and if I did I should not feel at liberty to disclose them. He 



11 

asked me personally in committee not to urge my objections to it. I 
had great respect and friendship for him, and I was willing- that he 
might report it. Bat I had a conversation with several gentlemen ou 
the floor in regard to the inexpediency of allowing it to pass. But 
there was at that time — and I know the gentleman will thank me fhv 
this piece of information 

Mr. COX. We are always thankful for anything from you. 

Mr. BLAINE. I found there was an expectathm ou our side that 
the gentleman from New York [Mr. Cox] and his associates would 
he very kindly disposed toward the civil-rights bill if general amnesty 
should he passed. I asked the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. 
Rainey] to otter the ammendmeut referred to ; and he will oblige me 
by stating whether his recollection agrees with mine as to his reply. 

Mr. EAINEY. I remember the circumstances perfectly well. I 
declined, for fear that my motives might be misrepresented in the 
South. 

Mr. BLAINE. He said he would not like to do it for many reasons, 
and among other things because it might prejudice the civil-rights 
bill, in which he felt aVery deep interest. I thought then, as I have 
already stated, that the bill in such a form as to include Mr. Davis 
ought not to have gone through. I was in the chair ; I could not 
myself object to the bill ; and it took the course which the gentleman 
himself has indicated. Now will the gentleman please state to me 
whether there wiis any little understanding that he and his colleagues 
would be lenient toward the civil-rights bill, and whether they kept 
faith on that point ? 

Mr. EANDALL. There was no such understanding ; none in the 
world. 

Mr. COX. Never ! never ! never ! 

Mr. EANDALL. And my subsequent conduct when the bill was 
under consideration gives a contradiction to it. 

Mr. BLAINE. I do not accuse the gentleman of violating such an 
understanding. The subsequent conduct of that side of the House 
showed very plainly that if there had been such an understanding 
they did not observe it. 

Mr. COX. Now, I think the gentleman from Maine has only made 
the matter worse. He has said that he had one object in committee 
and another outside of the committee. He had some secret political 
purpose. Is that the statesmanship that aspires to the Presidency ? 
[Laughter. ] That is to say, while he was ready to acquiesce from 
personal regard for our present minister to Constantinople, Mr. May- 
nard ; while he would not make trouble in the committee ; yet when 
he is outside of the committee, he seeks a colored member and through 
him tries to make an objection. Yet, sir, the gentleman sat here 
then in this House as the guardian of honor and honesty. And while 
Mr. Maynard says "I am authorized to report this bill unanimously," 
the gentleman from Maine was as dumb as an oyster. 

Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman confuses all distinctions. I was 
perfectly willing that the bill should come before the House ; and I 
have moved to reconsider the vote on this bill in order to bring it 
before the House. 

Mr. EANDALL. Did the gentleman ever offer in committee any 
amendment to except Jefferson Davis ? 

Mr. BLAINE. No, sir, I tlid not ; but 

Mr. COX. That is enough. 

Mr. BLAINE. But I was willing to bring the bill before the House, 
as I am willing to bring this bill before the House. 



12 

Mr. COX. Now I ^Yant to give the gentleman a little more of this. 
If he would not undertake to interrupt me quite so much, he would 
feel a good deal better. He is somewhat like the little boy do-mj in 
Memphis who undertook to take a twist with a mule's tail ; his 
f a-ther said to him afterward, " You don't look so pretty as you did, 
my boy, but you have learned something." [Great laughter.] 

Mr. BLAINE. Does the gentleman from New York [Mr. Cox] rep- 
resent the mule in that illustration ? [Renewed laughter.] 

Mr. COX. Now, Mr. Speaker, I did not hear the last remark of the 
gentleman from Maine, but I suppose it was one of the soft and yield- 
ing speeches which he is capable of making. [Laughter.] 

Mr. ELAINE. Does the gentleman want me to repeat it 'i [Laugh- 
ter.] 

Mr. COX. O, no! I have the floor. [Laughter.] 

Then Mr. Mayuard rose. There never was such an opportunity 
(and I would seize it if I were not a little merciful and did not feel 
amnestically) in which to run a knife quietly into the gentleman 
from Maine and turn it round. But I am inclined to deal gently 
with him. [Laughter.] This is an amnestic^il occasion. 

Mr. IMaynard then arose and moved the previous question. Mr. 
Laweence inquired, would not that admit Jeiierson Davis to a seat 
upon this floor. I remember that Mr. Lawrence, of Ohio. [Langh- 
ter.] No wonder he got alarmed when he found that the whole com- 
mittee were unanimous, including the gentleman from Maine. Mr. 
Lawrence said : " I object to it." Mr. Hoar then made an inquiry 
and a point of order. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, insisted on the 
point of order. Mr. Mayuard said : 

I move to suspend tho rules, so as to allow the committee to report this bill and 
to pass it. And in answer to tho question projwunded by tlio gentleman from 
Ohio, [Mr. Lawrence,] I tell him frankly that tliis bill will, if enacted, admit the 
president of the southern confederacy, iust as tho Ti<;e-])ie,sident ha.s been already 
admitted, to a seat in either House ot Conj^'esa, pro\'idod the people where he lives 
shall think proper to send him here. It is general amnesty as recommended, by 
the President. 

Mr. Cox. Is there any objection to passing it unanimously ? The President rec- 
ommends amnesty ; and let us unanimously wind up this foolish business of taking 
the test-oath. 

There was no question then, no clamor then to adopting the amend- 
ment from that side. Gentlemen perfectly understood that Jefferson 
Davis was in the bill. 

What magic had worked this wondrous change? The thought of 
it affected my sensibilities. At once, my mind received a re)ralsion. 
I was ashamed of my own poor political intolerance. All my life I 
had been a partisan. Democracy to me had been a delusive glory. I 
was almost pei-suaded that my service ia Congress had been a mis- 
take. I shovild have been a republican. That after all the.kuklux- 
ism, not to speak of the rebellion and all the recriminations against 
the prescriptive party, including the soldierly Garfield and the bel- 
ligerent Blaine, to ti.ud them, them in a moment — as it were, in the 
twinkling of an eye — and out of some great patriotic purpose, yield- 
ing so sv/eetly to the claims of clemency, w'th such magniflcent mag- 
nanimity — this was much. But when the tall, gaunt form of May- 
nard seemed to my new vision like one of the " better angels of our 
nature," it was for a moment too, too much for me. Catching the con- 
tagion of kindness, thus illustrated by this committee, we authorized 
the noble Maynard to take our united thought and crystallize it into 
the form of this l)ill of my colleague, [Mr. Randall.] We allowed him 
to present it to the House. The proceedings when this was done are 



beautiful to read. They are foniul immortiilized on page 91 of the 
llECORD of the lirst session of the Forty-third Congress, December 
8, 1873. It was, he said, " the unanimous report of the committee." I 
think I see his tall form now as he is calling the previous question. 
With a pinch of snuff between his thumb .and forefinger, extended 
into the glowing light shed through these escutcheons of our inde- 
pendent States, he is about to say that President Grant favored the 
general amnesty, when the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Lawrence] 
iuquii-ed "if the bill admits Jetf. Davis to a seat on this floor." Did 
Mr. Maynard shrink from such terrihc inquisition ? He did not. The 
bill passed— ayes 141, noes 29. Was there no Speaker, to spring from 
his exalted seat, to scream out, like a Robespierrean, "Jeiferson Davis 
a la lantenie f " Was there no stentorian voice from the gentleman 
from Maine, "Down, down forever, with the toad-spotted traitor?" 
Justice compels me to say there was not. Silently acquiescing with 
di"-nity and pride in the action of his committee, the bill passed, from 
the House to the Senate, where ruthless proscription killed it to keep 
alive the saddest of memories and the very embers of despair ! 

Now what a change have we here to-day, and for what pm-pose ? 
Why do you oppose now your own measure ? Why make excep- 
tion? Why not breathe the old spirit of Sir Thomas Browne, which 
I once quoted here : "You should draw the curtain for the purpose 
of hidino- injury." No partial pardon, for that is no pardon at all. 
Gentlemen will find that out, if not in this world, in the other. 
[Lauo-hter.] Why give a partial amnesty 1 It is not amnesty if n 
is partial. It is exceptional, and therefore not in any sense clemency. 

It is not diflicult to attribute motives to gentlemen on this floor, 
but I will not do it. The gentleman from Maine is known to lie a 
candidate for the presidency, but that is no reason why he should be 
a mean man. [Laughter.] He is not ; but, on the contrary, a kind- 
hearted, generous, noble citizen of Pennsylvania and of the State of 
Maine, representing, as I do here sometimes, two States all at once. 
[Laughter.] He is the last man to whom I would attribute any bad 

motives. . -, -r. • t ^ /-< 4. 

But one thing is curious, that he has antagonized President Grant 
on this subject. I do not like the look of that. [Laughter.] I call 
upon the republican gentlemen, especially that godly little knot of 
colored people who voted so nobly for the third term, to vote down 
this exceptionally obnoxious proposition of the gentleman from 
Maine. For di d not the President of the United States in his message 
of December, 1873, say this : 

I will renew my previous recommendation to Consresa for general amnesty. 
The number engaged in tlie rebellion still laboring under disabilities is very small, 
but enough to keep up a constant irritation. No possible danger can accrue lO tho 
Government by restoring them to eligibility to hold office. 

This was o-eneral amnesty. Why General Grant even did not favor 
any exception ! He was a soldier. He was not a "scurvy politician." 
General Grant fought in the war. and made a report in I860 that you 
southern men were all right then, contented, acquiescent in the Gov- 
ernment. He never believed in this revengeful system. True, he has 
made some Uttle trouble down South in Arkansas and Louisiana and 
other places, despoiled a few States with his bayonets, and made a 
good deal of trouble with these gentlemen here around me But he 
never proposed this exceptional, partial amnesty. ^q. , • 

Must we of the opposition, av ho are observing the coming conflict m 
the republican party, conclude from this and other signs that this 
amnestical expression of the President has driven his competitor from 



14 

Maine iuto the arms of Jefter.son Davis ? Must vre iufer that, to raise 
aspirit against Ctesar,he is compelled to give Jetierson Davis the crown 
of martyrdom ? Is it here that we find the solution ? Tlie generous 
pursuitof arms has made our Caesar tender to the South. Must we 
compare the politician with the soldier? Both are ambitious; the 
one is as obdurate as the rock-bound coasts of Maine to the claims 
of mercy ; while we are told that — 

The warrior's heart, when tonchnd by her, 

Can as downy, soft, and yieWiuu bo 

As his own white pbime. that high amid death 

Through the field hath shone, j'et moveth with a breath. 

How .shall I contrast the conduct of the honoraltle gentleman from 
Maine with that of General Grant without giving my views on the 
presidential que,stion ? [Laughter. ] 

Now, in conclusion, I wish to recall one thought to the gentleman 
from Maine and to this House. We have come together here by some 
tidal wave ; these gentlemen from the South have been sitting here 
taking your little contemptible insults about our organization and our 
conduct when you knew or you might have knov.'u that, in the or- 
ganization of this House, more maimed Union soldiers have been ap- 
pointed under democratic administration here this winter according 
to the number of tliose appointed than were appointed by your radical 
Mr. Buxton in the last Congress. [Applause. ] And yet you have sent 
your slanders all over the country. To do what? To prejudice this 
hody of men here, who have quietly taken your taunts and your in- 
sults. If you want the facts on that subject, go to Colonel Fitzhugh, 
our Doorkeeper. You will find that, according to the number ap- 
pointed, in proportion to the service, fewer Union soldiers were ap- 
pointed by you than we have this year. There is no reason why you 
should send out to the country the cry this is the "ex-confederate 
congress." Many of you will be " ex's " yourselves before you get 
through with this business. [Laughter.] 

Mr. Speaker, I like to speak of amnesty. It is a favorite theme. 
I was delighted at the idea of getting a majority of 3 five years ago. 
But here, after ten years of struggle, after ten years of contempt, after 
every faithliil expression possible from southern gentlemen and states- 
men, including Jefferson Davis ; after all that can lie said by them of 
their adherence to the sentiments of patriotism and union, we have, 
in this year of jubilee, 1876, the distinguished member from Maine 
raking up again the embers of dead hates for soine bad purpose — I 
may as well tell all I think about it, [laughter,] — a bad, mischievous, 
malicious irarpose, which will never elect him to the Presidency if he 
lives a thousand years. [Applause.] Idonotask anybody to applaud 
these sentiments. They will speak for themselves without applause. 
But I remember, and the gentleman from Maine may recall the fact, 
when a member of t])is House, a distinguished gentleman fi'om Penn- 
sylvania, now deceased. Judge Woodward, once sent to my desk to 
1)0 read the one hundred and twenty-sixth Psalm. I think I will 
read it for the benefit of the gentleman. It was after Cyrus had re- 
lieved the Hebrews fi'om captivity. The Psalmist touched his harp, 
and broke forth in the IjTic loftiness of gratulation : 

1. "WTien the Lord turned ag ain the captivity of Zion, we were like them that 
dream. 

2. Then was onr month filled with lanshter, and our tongue with sinQ,ing: then 
said they among the heathen, The Loid hath done great things for them. 

3. The Lord hath done great things for ns ; whereof we are glad. 

4. Turn again our cai)tivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. 



15 

There is ;ni annotation by Dr.Clarke to fcliis psalin wliicli in connec- 
tion with it may very well be pondei-ed. It recites that once wlieu 
the Roman general had overcome Philip of Macedon and conquered 
Greece, and had put all the cities of Greece under taxation and tyranny, 
there was a gathering of the people in the circus at tlie Isthmian 
games, and without the previous knowledge of any one except the 
general in command of the city, theherald, as he proclaimed the games, 
was authorized to proclaim in behalf of the Roman senate and the gen- 
eral of the army to the citizens that their taxes should remain forever 
abolished, and that no record or rule should remain of the tyranny 
which had been exercised by the Romans over the Greeks. All the 
people listened as if it had been an illusion. They wei'e in a dream, 
like the Jews when relies-ed from captivity. They turned one to an- 
other, and said: " What means this; what did the herald say after he 
blew the trumpet? Have we been given our liberty?" One said to 
the other, "Did you hear what was said?" And they went to tlie 
herald, and cried, " Repeat to us what you have said ; " and he repeated 
it, and their hearts were foil of gladness. Says Livy, " They lifted 
up their hearts and rejoiced, for the year of their deliverance had 
come." It was the year of Grecian jubilee. Aud now, when our jubi- 
lee has come in this" year of 1876, I would like to have a herald from 
Philadelphia, or from this Capital, to sound the trumpet and proclaim 
deliverance to the South from republican exactions, froin bad rule, 
aud the establishment of autonomy all through the Soirth. Then a 
glorious, blessed light coming from above — the white radiance of eter- 
nity itself — w'll shine upon a,rchitrave, pillar, and dome of the temple 
of our American freedom ! [Applause.] 

Mr. KELLEY obtained the floor. 

Mr. BLAIi''E. Will the gentlcinan from Pennsylvania allow me to 
ask the gentleman from New York [Mr. Cox] one question ? 

Mr. KELLEY. I will yield for a moment for that purpose. 

Mr. BLAINE. The gentleman from New York said something iu 
the course of his remarks about his having spoken here against the 
policy of poisoning wells, and other things of that kind. 

Mr. COX. I was trying to illustrate the moderation and humanity 
of the law as it should obtain among civilized countries. 

Mr. BLAINE. Then the gentlemlin did not mean to imply in so 
speaking that the Government had pursued any such xiolicy I 

Mr. COX. I was speaking of the rules prevailing among civilized 
nations. 

Mr. BLAINE. Did the gentleman mean to imply by the remotest 
implication that the Government of the United States was resorting 
to any such measures as that ? 

Mr. COX. I never had such an idea in my life, and I wiU correct 
it in the Congressionai. Record if I expressed myself wrongly. 



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